Has a winch pulled off a bumper?

[Ravager]

I'm sure there are some engineer types here but what does it take for a winch to damage a bumper? There are only four small bolts holding the winch to the bumper, then eight bolts holding the bumper to the frame.

I did a cursory google search and didn't see any pics of damage. Are those bolts doing that good of a job?

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[RubenZ]

lets just say the force would have to be so great and the JEEP so stuck that chances are you'd pull the frame off the Axles before breaking it off the bumper.

 

[mgroeger]

Talked to a guru in Oregon and it just happened on a JL. EAG makes bumpers and other stuff, you can find them on Amazon. I have one of their rear bumpers for my LJ and it is very solid, identical to Smittybuilt and Barricade so I suspect it's made at same plant. Anyway the JK EAG front bumper will fit a JL with a slight tweak to the mounting area. Here's the problem and weak point of any bumper/winch plate... it's got to have a bent lip on any exposed front or rear edge, if it is a simple plate it will buckle. The rear edge of where the winch mounted to the EAG bumper was completely flat, the guy had a Warn winch on it, hooked the winch to a tree to pull himself out of a ditch and the bumper buckled crushing the winch and damaging the drum.

 

[ChrispyJL]

hmm, I wonder if EAG will be upgrading their plate to have lips, so this doesn't happen to more people.

Good to know info here.

 

[Sorbs]

The winch isn’t attached to your factory steel bumper. It is bolted to a winch plate behind the bumper.

The factory steel bumper just has a hole in it so you can run the rope through it and to mount a fairlead to it.

If a winch pulls, bends or rips an aftermarket bumper or winch plate off the Jeep’s frame rails then it was either not installed correctly or made from substandard materials.

 

[OffroadTreks]

I haven't seen a winch come off, but I've seen broken shackle mounts galore.

All these bolt-on recovery points on many bumpers bother me. F*** that stuff.

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